Personally Speaking

Stuart Hall is a foundational figure in the influential interdisciplinary field known as cultural studies. In this stimulating and eloquent four-hour interview, conducted by the literary journalist Maya Jaggi and directed by Mike Dibb, Hall reflects on his life and career, talking personally and in depth about the trajectory of his work and how it has intersected with broader political movements. In a conversation both intimate and sweeping in scope, Hall describes his migration from Jamaica to England, his immersion in left-wing politics in London, the influence of Raymond Williams and E.P. Thompson on the evolution of his thought, and the context within which the early classic texts of cultural studies were written. Hall also shares his pessimism about the economic recession and his optimism about Barack Obama's victory. Future analysis of Hall's work, and of cultural studies in general, will need to take account of this fascinating and indispensable first-person account of his life and ideas. Broken into short sections to facilitate use in the classroom.

Film Festivals
Official Selection, 2008 One World Berlin Film Festival
Official Selection, 2008 PSBT International Film Festival and Forum
Official Selection, 2008 Adelaide Festival of Arts
Official Selection, 2004 Seattle Arab & Iranian Film Festival
Official Selection, 2004 Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival
Official Selection, 2004 Tempo Documentary Film Festival

"In Personally Speaking, Stuart Hall tells many stories -- about his family's history in colonial Jamaica, his development as diasporic intellectual in the UK, the formation of the English New Left and the Birmingham Center for Critical Cultural Studies, the political significance of Obama's campaign, even the place of Hall's semi-professional career as jazz pianist in his intellectual work. He is an incandescent narrator, at ease recognizing himself as made by history, language, color, love, and political possibility, and living richly inside the times and places he has done so much to help us understand. Forget The Sopranos; this is the best serial television I've seen."
- Lisa Henderson | University of Massachusetts